Tuesday, January 5, 2016

New Year, New Story, No Excuses By C.P. Stringham

The MRI that revealed my daughter's brain lesion.

I
admit it. I’m a grudge holder. I know it isn’t healthy. Let’s just say I won’t
be sorry to see the backside of 2015. Yes, I’m holding an entire year
accountable for my grudge. While many great events happened, my family
experienced more than our fair share of health issues. These issues affect both of my
children and will never go away. Still, I know things could be much worse, but,
as a parent, these things just weigh heavy on the mind and heart. We always
want what’s best for our kids and to protect them. Each has something that won’t
simply go away. Focusing on that isn’t going to make it easier. I’ve resolved
myself to the fact that, while I can’t fix things, I need to redirect my
worries into something productive. Fixating is destructive. I’ve watched my two
years of healthier eating and exercising go to the wayside in nine months of
recklessness. I detest New Year’s resolutions, but here I am starting a new
year and hoping to make changes. Oh, the irony.

I have
leaned on social media to be my escape. Especially the last three years. I can’t
even begin to estimate the hours I have spent liking, commenting, and posting on Facebook. As an
indie author and a stay-at-home mom, let’s face it, I have very little outside
interaction with the rest of the world. Facebook, in particular, filled that
hole. And filled it. And filled it. While I have loved reconnecting with old
classmates, past coworkers, and long lost relatives, I know I have to limit my
time spent “connecting” and get back to engaging with the non-virtual world—the
real world. That includes spending quality time with my children, returning to
an exercise routine, pleasure reading, and WRITING. I can’t do that while
absorbed in what everyone else is posting on Facebook. I need to be grounded in
the here and now.

My beautiful family from a November photo session. Can you tell we're Elmira College proud? Or maybe we just really like wearing purple.

Speaking
of writing, I’m at a crossroads. While I have four writing projects well past
the halfway point in their progress. I have no desire at this time to finish them.
I was content before with multitasking projects. Working on one when I felt the creative urge, but it’s been so long since I’ve
revisited each story, I can’t seem to return to them. That doesn’t mean it will
never happen, only that I need to move on to something else. Writers evolve
over time. Our emotional state dictates what we write. It sets the tone for our
creativity. I’m ready to write, but from a different place and that means a
new, single-focused project. That also means promoting my work again by tweeting and blogging. Robin Janney - Author posted last week, so I hope this means the ladies at Broads of a Feather are back to our weekly blogging.

Out with the old: writing projects on hold, but not forgotten.

Here’s
hoping for a healthy and productive year with lots of personal change in
habits!

And in with the new: both in outline form. Do I want to work on a dark comedy or a women's fiction literature story?